Daring more democracy: stern magazine, gender and West German society, 1960-1980

Thesis

This dissertation blends gender and media history to probe the standard story of West German history as an affirmative tale of a peaceful and prosperous democratisation. Using stern as an instructive case study, my thesis reveals deeper issues concerning the relationship between gender, liberalism and the press in 1960s and 1970s West Germany. From mid-1960s through the 1980s, stern served as a major pacesetter of radically changing gender relations in the Federal Republic, insofar as it spurred major controversies around the status and situation of women. The study highlights the relationship between mass media and second-wave feminism in promoting political change. My overarching argument is that media scandals about women’s issues and stern’s engaged journalism directed toward women’s issues helped West German democracy advance. The study shows how stern’s journalists championed popular participation by inviting readers and women’s rights advocates to share their concerns, build political networks and expose liberalism’s democratic deficits. It examines how female stern journalists recollected their roles in their personal lives and male-dominated working environment, and analyses how their experiences as women politicised them and their work. They were important political actors in promoting feminist issues, often in the name of equality, liberty and justice. stern was not a feminist publication. It featured many different topics and opinions of the day, and women’s issues were only one part of it. Even if stern was not exclusively positive, unanimous or emancipatory in its reportage of gender issues, female stern reporters took the lead in promoting women’s equality, inclusion, justice and independence. My study further tracks how stern coverage of women and women’s issues spilled into the public sphere and drove large-scale debate about the meaning and strength of West German social democracy. Illustrated magazines, stern in particular, serve as valuable if under-studied sources for exploring the changing understandings of West German culture, politics and society.

Authors: Fergen, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-brngqek61
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Women's Liberation; engaged journalism; second-wave Feminism; West German history; pressfreedom; gender; Federal Republic of Germany; West German society; civil viberties; women and media; press history; 1960s West Germany; mass media and politics; press and democracy; female journalists; media history; political networks; 1980s West Germany; advocacy journalism; journalism history; West German-East German relations; human rights; illustrated magazines; West German democracy; popular journalism; gender and media studies; Women's Rights Movement; gender history; media scandals; West German press; oral history; liberalism and democracy; public sphere; media and feminism; feminist politics; New Women's Movement; social democracy; press; gender and liberalism; sexism; feminist activism; women's equality; women in journalism; democratisation; feministissues; Cold War; feminist; activism; feminism; gender relations; West Germany; mass media; women's rights; postwar history; stern Magazine; media and political change; 1970s West Germany
• Subjects: History, Political; Studies, Gender; History, Modern European; Mass media--History; Women and journalism; Studies, German; Oral history; Feminism and mass media; History, German; History, Interdisciplinary; History, Women's; History; History, Media; Studies, Feminist; History, Cultural; Studies, Media; Mass media and history; Social history; History, Press; Feminism in the press; Press and politics--Germany--History--20th century; Women's studies; Studies, Journalism; History, Modern; History, Gender